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for the ENVIRONMENT for the ANIMALS & for your HEALTH!
Did you know that each and everyone of us is fueling one of the world's biggest ecological disasters and acts of primate genocide in history?
Borneo and Sumatra are two of the most bio-diverse regions of the world, yet they have the longest list of endangered species. This list includes the magnificent orangutan. These two South-East Asian islands are extremely rich in life, containing around 20,000 flowering plant species, 3,000 tree species, 300,000 animal species and thousands more being discovered each year. Despite this amazing biodiversity and delicate web of species, an area the size of 300 football fields of rainforest is cleared each hour in Indonesia and Malaysia to make way for one vegetable oil. That's 6 football fields destroyed each minute! This vegetable oil is called palm oil, and is found in hundreds of the everyday products, from baked foods and confectionery, to cosmetics and cleaning agents. Many of which you buy each week.
Deforestation Due to the massive international demand on palm oil, palm oil plantations are rapidly replacing the rainforest habitat of the critically endangered orangutan; with over 90% of their habitat already destroyed in the last 20 years. There are various systems undertaken when it comes to deforestation for the development of palm oil, but typically, the deforestation process is as follows; the land which is owned by either the Government of Indonesian or Malaysian, both of which are overrun with corruption,is purchased by wealthy foreigners or manufacturing companies. First, the forest is logged of all its precious hardwood timber; teak, ironwood, ebony, mahogany, sandalwood and over 70 other valuable species. The remaining trees, shrubs and debris are then set fire to. The land is then cleared and flattened using heavy machinery to make way for rows and rows of oil palms. Next, a number of poor, indigenous locals are employed by the plantation owners, usually the people who have been displaced from the rainforest land, where they plant and maintain the oil palm trees under very risky, dangerous conditions, using many unsafe chemicals, all for very little pay. A very important thing to remember is that after this process has taken place and the oil palm plantation has begun, it will only last for approximately 20 to 50 years, and then the soil is drained of its nutrients and the palm trees too matured to produce palm fruit. Which is why palm oil is very much a short-term commodity, and not a long-term sustainable solution.
Orangutans Orangutan means 'Person of the jungle' in the Indonesian language. It is estimated that 6 to 12 of these 'jungle people' are killed each day for palm oil. These gentle creatures are either killed in the deforestation process, when they wonder into a palm oil plantation looking for food, or in the illegal pet trade after they've been captured and kept as pets in extremely poor conditions and provided with very little nutrition.
In the deforestation process, they are treated in the most inhumane ways. Works and farmers are told that if wildlife gets in the way, they are to do whatever is necessary in order to dispose the 'pests'. Often, poor farmers and plantation workers cannot afford guns, so they run over orangutans with the logging machinery, beat them to death, bury them alive or set them on fire... all in the name of palm oil.
Orangutans in palm oil plantations are considered an agricultural pest, because they have the potential to damage oil palm crops. In some cases poachers are hired and a bounty is put on the orangutan's head. If a female orangutan is found carrying a baby, the mother will be shot and the baby taken and kept as a pet, or sold on the illegal exotic pet trade and in some cases shipped to countries like the United States. These gentle, inquisitive animals are also captured and used in the entertainment industry, where they are locked away and beaten in Asian tourist parks and circuses, in order to learn tricks and live lives of humiliation, violence and exploitation. They are also used in films and tevevision adverts all over the world.
In some cases, the absolute unthinkable is done to female orangutans. They are captured and used in Indonesian brothels as prostitutes; where they are tied down and repeatably rape on a daily basis.
Government data has shown that over 50,000 orangutans have already died as a result of deforestation due to palm oil in the last two decades.
Experts say that if this pattern of destruction and exploitation continues, these intelligent acrobats of the jungle will be extinct in the wild within 4 to 12 years (as early as 2015). It is also thought that their jungle habitat will be completely gone within 40 years (approximately 2050). These self-aware, red apes are some of our closest relatives, sharing 97% of our DNA. There is only a 1 chromosome difference between us and them. They are the largest tree-dwelling mammal on the planet, and also the most intelligent animal after humans. With their amazing intellect, they have the ability to reason and think; along with almost all other human feelings and emotions. They can undo bolts, screws, knots and even pick locks. An orangutan named Chentek, at Atlanta Zoo in the US, was taught American sign language as an infant and has a vocabulary of over 500 words! These bright, fellow-apes also have their own culture.
Leif Cocks, an orangutan keeper at Perth Zoo, and founder & president of the Australian Orangutan Project, says:
"Many people believe that the most intelligent great apes are chimpanzees, the bonobo and then the gorillas, this may be because these species are more similar to humans, genetically. I have never come across an experienced ape keeper who has worked closely with all great ape species and does not agree that orangutans are by far the most intelligent."
The following are two aphorisms often stated by primate keepers:
"Give a screwdriver to a chimpanzee and it will throw it at another chimpanzee. Give a screwdriver to a gorilla and it will use it to scratch itself. Give a screwdriver to an orangutan and it will escape!"
"Give ten problems to a chimpanzee and it will solve six of the problems in 30 minutes and never solve the other four. Give ten problems to an orangutan and it will take one week, but will solve all ten problems."Orangutans are also a vital part of the rainforest ecosystem in South-East Asia. They help spread many tree seeds; in fact, some trees can only germinate once they have passed through the gut of an orangutan. These beautiful apes are critical to preserving the delicate ecosystems of Borneo and Sumatra. They are needed in order to maintain the rich bio-diversity of Fauna and Flora in these dense jungles.
Orangutans cannot live without the rainforest, and the rainforest cannot live without orangutans.
Ecosystems Everything in an ecosystem is linked. Picture it as if each species was represented as a 'cog' in the 'ecosystem machine'. We are currently pulling out thousands of cogs each year from the ecosystem machine of Borneo and Sumatra. As for species like the orangutan, if their cog is removed from the system, many, many other cogs will stop functioning as well. For example, as mentioned above, many tree species can only germinate once passed through the gut of an orangutan; so if the orangutan is removed from the ecosystem, so are those tree species. And there may be many bird, insect or monkey species that rely on those trees as a main food source, so those cogs will also be removed from the system.
Therefore, the 'ecosystem machine' of Borneo and Sumatra will malfunction and eventually fail. This will have catastrophic impacts on other ecosystems belonging to other regions of the world. This will in tern upset the climate, change global weather patterns and increase the chances of natural disasters.
...it all comes back to saving species like the orangutan and their rainforest homes.
Palm Oil Around 50 million tons of palm oil is produced annually; with almost all of that being non-sustainable palm oil, that replaces 12 million hectares of dense, bio-diverse rainforest. That's the equivalent landmass of North Korea deforested each year!
Palm oil is mainly used in foods, cosmetics and cleaning agents, but it can also be found in some bio-fuels. The fatty vegetable oil is mixed with a number of other fuels and liquids, to create an 'Eco-Friendly' bio-fuel. This 'Eco-Friendly' bio-fuel has already become mandatory in numerous countries including Malaysia (where 5% of all fuel must contain palm oil), and if it continues to be voted into petrol stations around the world, the future for our orange primate cousins and their rainforest homes will be very bleak.
In supermarkets in Australia, New Zealand, The United States and many European countries, 50% of all baked goods, confectionery, spreads, body products, cosmetics, cleaning agents, air fresheners and sometimes even paint and printer ink contain palm oil, and the average first-world citizen consumes at least 10kg of palm oil each year. These statistics dramatically increase with countries that span across Asia.
Fact is, a large percentage of products in your household will contain palm oil, and almost anything that contains a high level of saturated fat will have palm oil in it (except for some milk/cream products, which gain their saturated fat content from full cream milk).
However, you often don't know if products you are buying contribute to this detrimental destruction. You see, there are no laws on the mandatory labeling of palm oil in many countries, so palm oil is often hidden under the name of 'vegetable oil' or over 170 other names! Click here for more information on some of the names palm oil is labeled under - 'Palm Oil' page. This means that consumers are blinded as to which products they buy are contributing the destruction of our natural world and it's inhabitance.
Another large issue surrounding palm oil is the fact that this widely-used vegetable oil is very high in saturated fat, therefore a serious health risk. Due to its high saturated fat content, palm oil promotes heart disease, increases cholesterol levels, raises blood pressure and of course, it is a contributing factor to obesity. These four health issues are the main causes of one of the worlds biggest killers; cardiovascular disease. This extremely common disease claims one life every two seconds.
Some people argue that we need palm oil in this day and age; in order to produce certain foods and products. But what about 30 years ago? Back then, palm oil was virtually non-existent in most supermarkets, especially in the first-world, so why does there need to be such a high demand for it now? We don't need palm oil. There are many alternatives to palm oil, such as canola oil, peanut oil, sunflower oil and coconut oil, but unfortunately none as cheap or efficient, which is why companies are reluctant to switch.
Native People There is often controversy surrounding the benefits of palm oil plantations in Indonesian and Malaysia when speaking about the indigenous communities.
Some organisations, companies and individuals state that palm oil is highly benefit the native people, because it provides vast employment among local communities; which is vital in order for indigenous people to survive and earn money for basic food and medical supplies. On the other hand; many zoologists, conservations, lobby groups and members of the public argue that the plantations destroy the rainforest land that the local people depend on, and that they have no choice but to be employed as plantation workers, operating under extremely dangerous conditions and barely earn enough money to feed their families.
The situation is very controversial and rather sensitive. However; it is a fact that the rainforest is a life source to many native communities in Indonesia and Malaysia; they have lived off it for the past 50,000 years. If this bio-diverse jungle goes, many indigenous communities that still rely on the forest will lose their life-source along with much of their culture. An example of this is shown in a documentary where Din Perulak, the Chief of Sumatran tribe "Orang Rimba Sumatra" says: "I am so unhappy about these gigantic new oil palm plantations. Our forest which we, Orang Rimba, have gathered fruit, which has sustained us, has completely disappeared. There are plantations everywhere. I ask you: how are we supposed to survive when there is no forest anymore?"
To reiterate - if the land is cleared, the people loose their food and medicine source, and have no choice but to travel to purchase food and medical supplies. This leads to the need of employment to earn money for those supplies, and the biggest source of basic employment in those areas is working for the owners of palm oil plantations.
Global Warming
Palm oil is also having a shocking impact on our planet. The production of this one vegetable oil is not only responsible for polluting rivers and causing land erosion, but when the plantation workers set fire to the remaining trees, shrubs and debris to make way for the oil palms, it produces immense amount of smoke pollution that is toxic to the earth. This has been found to be the second biggest contributor to greenhouse gas in the world.
Another significant concern relatived to this is to do with oxygen. Rainforest trees and vegetation filter carbon dioxide out of the air, and in turn, produce clean oxygenated air for us to breathe. This means that in a time when there is more carbon dioxide pollution in the atmosphere than ever (which is partly due to the forest burning in the first place), we need be growing more forest in order to filter that carbon dioxide and create clean air for us to breathe. Instead, we are doing the opposite - logging forest at an alarming rate.
More carbon dioxide in the air means larger effects on global warming; leading to rising sea levels, changing weather patterns and consequently, frequent natural disasters, ice glaciers melting and more species being wiped out.
And it all comes back to preserving the remaining rainforest that remains on planet earth - NOT destroying it for development.
By purchasing products that contain crude palm oil, you are helping destroy ancient, pristine rainforest, wipe out species like the orangutan, and create a large-scale ecological disaster.
Think of the consequences next time you do your weekly shopping; the consequences not only for orangutans and other animals, but for us as the human race; for we cannot survive without the rainforests either. We have a choice, orangutans do not.
"Palm oil is now the greatest threat to the survival of orangutans in the wild." ~ Lone Droscher-Nielsen
"It's difficult to describe (the deforestation in Borneo). But for me, it's like a man-made tsunami." ~ Lone Droscher-Neilsen
"There is no way that something as beautiful and innocent as an orangutan, could ever have evolved into man." ~ Lone Droscher-Neilsen
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Photos by Hardi Baktiantoro & Jean Kern |
